Will There Be an End to Evil?

Myth, Fairy Tale, or Fact?

Last week we talked about eternity and eternal life. Death is not extinguishing the light from the Christian; it is putting out the lamp because the dawn has come. This week we will continue to talk about eternity but in a way that may seem very disturbing to you. Evil is horrible: we all agree that this is true. The Bible teaches that God has a permanent solution for evil – a place called Hell.

Mark Hausfeld writes for the Assemblies of God publication, Influence Magazine (a great on-line or hard copy magazine). I agree with him when he says, “Many people today dismiss hell as a myth or fairy tale. But if the Bible is God’s Word, hell is a real place that cannot be ignored. If I could develop my own theology of hell, it would be less harsh, lonely and eternal. However, the truth is that hell is harsh, lonely and eternal.” [1]

I remember a statement by either Leonard Ravenhill or Winkie Pratney that went like this, “I believe in hell because not everybody gets what they deserve in this world.” He went on to list the atrocities of Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini. Since the beginning of the 20th Century we can list the horrors of abortion, human trafficking, dictators, religious fanatics, and malicious people who deny God.

Hell is an unpopular topic today. According to one survey, only slightly more than half of the population believe that there is a literal hell. Well, if there isn’t one, Jesus must have been very confused because He clearly taught that there was.

Jesus Clearly Spoke About Hell

Jesus, who is also the rider of the white horse in Revelation 19, spoke more about hell than any other writer.

Matthew 25:31–46 NIV

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Again, Jesus speaks more of hell than any other speaker in the Bible. In this passage he points out some awesome realities about hell – (1) it was prepared for the devil, and (2) it is an eternal punishment.

The Ultimate End of Evil is a Place Called Hell

The term hell is an Anglo-Saxon word, possibly of Norse origins. The term originally seems to have been associated with mythological rulers of the Germanic underworld. For this reason, it came to be a word referring to the underworld. Later, hell became the way that the biblical terms gehenna and, often, sheol were translated. in the King James Version. The New Testament often translates sheol with hades, a term borrowed from the Greek mythological underworld.

In the Old Testament, sheol frequently has a more neutral meaning – the realm of the dead or the grace. Gehenna originally referred to the Valley of Hinnom, a place believed to have been cursed because it was the location of child sacrifice. Jesus appropriates gehenna to refer to a state of eternal suffering throughout the Gospels (Matt 10:28; Mark 9:43).

Notice that Jesus does not preordain people to go to hell. They send themselves there. Jesus makes this point clear in John 12:48,

John 12:48 NIV

There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day.

The Original Purpose of Hell Was for the Devil and His Demons

In a moment we will see that hell was made for the rebellious angels and for Lucifer. An eternal and horrible punishment seems to make more sense when we realize these demons may have existed for, well, no one knows how long. The Apostle Peter writes,

2 Peter 2:4–10 NIV

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment. This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the flesh and despise authority. Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to heap abuse on celestial beings;

Hell is God’s plan. His ways are higher than our ways, and He is both loving and just.

In Hell, A Person is Eternally Aware of Their Punishment

Many things we don’t know about hell. But Jesus and the New Testament writers used every image in their power to tell us that hell is real, it’s terrible, it’s something to be feared, and something to avoid. In his description of the last judgment, Jesus taught that some would go to eternal punishment, some to eternal life (Matt. 25:46). In other words, hell will be as real and as lasting as heaven.

Leighton Ford points out that Hell is disintegration – the eternal loss of being a real person. In hell the mathematician who lived for science can’t add two and two. The concert pianist who worshipped himself through his art can’t play a simple scale. The man who lived for sex goes on in eternal lust, with no body to exploit. The woman who made a god out of fashion has a thousand dresses but no mirror! Hell is eternal desire – eternally unfulfilled.[2]

Jesus teaches the disciples on one occasion that

Mark 9:47–48 NIV

And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where “ ‘the worms that eat them do not die, and the fire is not quenched.’

In the story of the rich man and Lazarus, we are told,

Luke 16:23–24 NIV

In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’

Hell means devastation, not annihilation (Revelation 14:11).

Hell is Eternal Because It is a Just Punishment

Clay Jones, in his book Why Does God Allow Evil, makes a statement that I strongly agree with, “…the Bible tells us that eternal punishment awaits those who reject the good news. This bad news offends non-Christians and troubles many Christians. After all, how can God be loving and yet punish people forever?” Hell bothers me. Truthfully, I’d rather try to ignore it because it breaks my heart. It should break all of ours. But, it is real and it is just.

The problem that we have with hell as a just punishment can be linked to sin. We tend to downplay the significance of human sin and we view our sins as less sinful than they really are.[3] Remember, atonement for sin demanded that the Son of God become incarnate and die on the Cross. That is a tremendous price!

Another quote from Clay Jones demonstrates the effects of sin…

…we should remember that creaturely sin resulted in war in heaven! And all human rebellion against God is akin to Satan’s rebellion against the Lord, which, directly or indirectly, resulted in every suffering, sickness, rape, torture, and death that ever happened or will happen on planet Earth. And all the suffering on this planet doesn’t take into account who knows how much horror in the kingdom of heaven. To say that rebellion in God’s kingdom is a big deal is akin to saying that global thermonuclear war is inconvenient. All the wars in the history of this world and heaven are the result of sin. We drastically underestimate the horror of rebellion.[4]

Some people remember the story of the rich man who cried out to Lazarus for water and think, “What a minute! He is a repentant sinner!” The Bible never says that and in many other locations what we see is that the inhabitants of hell remain unrepentant even in the middle of their punishment. In Revelations 16:9 we see unrepentant sinners:

Revelation 16:9 NIV

They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him.

Revelation 9:20–21 NIV

The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.

We hear of “weeping and gnashing of teeth” in hell. But according to Rabbinic thought ‘weeping’ is usually associated with sorrow but ‘gnashing of teeth’ was almost always associated with anger.

Ian Fisher recounts in his article, entitled “New Iraqi Leaders Confront Their Former Dictator,” the following incident: “Soon after Saddam Hussein’s capture … he was flown to a secret location for a meeting with four members of Iraq’s Governing Council. They wanted to confirm that it was indeed Saddam Hussein. When the men were offered the chance to see Saddam through a window or by camera, they said, ‘No, we want to talk to him.’

“Despite his condition, Saddam was defiant and unrepentant. Ahmad Chalabi, the head of the Iraqi National Congress, said: ‘He was quite lucid. He had command of his faculties. He would not apologize to the Iraqi people. He did not deny any of the crimes he was confronted with having done. He tried to justify them” .

People who refuse to repent send themselves to hell.[5]

Yes, There Will Be an End to Evil

Satan’s Release for a Brief Time of Tests for the Nations

The story of the new heaven and new earth begins with the final judgment of Satan.

Human nature has not been changed by a near-perfect Millennium. For 1,000 years, humans have been under the perfect rule of Christ. However, the release of Satan reveals the true heart of many.

Revelation 20:8–9 NIV

and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—and to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them.

The Great White Throne Judgment

The Bible teaches that there will be an end to evil. The Christian has already been received into Heaven at the Judgment Seat of Christ and rewards have been given. At what is called the Great White Throne Judgment Christ will act as the Judge over those whose names are not written in the Lambs Book of Life. The Book of Life, also called “the Lamb’s book of life” (Revelation 21:27), includes the name of every person who has come to Christ to receive forgiveness of sins committed.

The Wicked

Revelation 21:8 gives a good definition of the wicked,

Revelation 21:8 NIV

But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

We have a natural tendency to rank some sins as worse than others. Most would place the vile, the murderers, the immoral, the idolaters, and all liars – their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.” We have a natural tendency to rank some sins as worse than others. Most would place the vile, the murderers, the immoral, the idolaters, and those who practice magic arts at the top of the list. Liars and unbelieving might be close behind. But what about the cowardly? These are fearful persons because of their lack of faith. The list describes who will not be in the New Jerusalem but instead will be condemned to the lake of Judgement as out and out sinners, self-righteous people, procrastinators who put off accepting Christ, those who have never heard the gospel, and unsaved church members. Out-and-out sinners would be the wicked in anyone’s definition. But God includes the self-righteous, the procrastinators, and unsaved members. When the sinner asks forgiveness of God, as provided by Christ’s sacrificial death and resurrection, God blots out the sin and remembers it no more (Isa. 43:25). But until one is saved by God’s forgiving grace, the sin penalty remains.

Satan’s Final End

With this final act dealing with the devil, the new heavens and earth come.

Revelation 20:10 NIV

And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

So, hell is not temporary. The Bible calls it ‘the second death’ because it consists of eternal separation in a terrible place of suffering away from the presence of God.

Someone has explained that the reason the punishment is eternal is because of whom sin offends — the infinite God of the universe. Sin is like taking a shot at God. It is an act of rebellion and defiance.

The Great Compliment of Hell

But there’s another side. G. K. Chesterton once remarked, “Hell is God’s great compliment to the reality of human freedom and the dignity of human personality.” Hell, a compliment? Yes, because God is saying to us, “You are significant. I take you seriously. Choose to reject me – choose hell if you will. I will let you go.”

“Some want to live within the sound Of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop, Within a yard of hell.”― C.T. Studd

[1] Hausfeld, Mark. “Why Hell Matters”. Influence Magazine. April 26, 2017.

[2] Ford, Leighton, “Good News is for Sharing”. 1977.

[3] Jones, Clay. Why Does God Allow Evil? Page 94.

[4] Jones. Abid p.94.

[5] Eutsler, Steve D. “Why is There a Hell?”. Enrichment Journal; Summer 2009.